Molecular and Cellular Biology

The MOCB concentration area offers highly mentored graduate training with faculty interested in a broad spectrum of research focused on understanding the molecular nature of biology.  Our faculty members have expertise in state-of-the-art technologies, have national and international reputations, and publish in high impact journals.  MOCB-CA students receive a Core Curriculum that emphasizes knowledge in the areas of molecular genetics, nucleic acid biochemistry, cell biology, and structural biology.  In addition, a number of interdisciplinary research clusters are available focusing on host-pathogen interactions, plant systems, developmental biology, virology, genomics, biophysics, and more. The overall goal of the MOCB-CA is to provide our students with rigorous and comprehensive research training that will lead to a successful career in the biosciences. 

Currently the Concentration Area Director for MOCB is Dr. Jiqiang “Lanny” Ling (CBMG)

Congratulations to Akshay Patel (Roy Lab) on winning the 2022 MOCB Best Paper Award! A summary of his paper, “Cytonemes coordinate asymmetric signaling and organization in the Drosophila muscle progenitor niche,” is below:

Tissue development and regeneration rely on the ability of the stem cells to efficiently maintain a balance between opposing decisions such as self-renewal and differentiation. Most studies of stem cells in-vivo have revealed that these opposing fate decisions are made in the context of a niche that the stem cells occupy and are controlled by the asymmetric signaling microenvironment. Niche cells produce growth factors and somehow deliver them selectively only to some stem-cells to promote self-renewal and stemness, but not to their differentiating daughter cells that are situated just one cell-diameter away. This paper explored the basis of this asymmetric signaling by examining a Drosophila muscle stem-cell niche through a combination of high-resolution microscopy, molecular genetics, and cell biological approaches. In this paper, the authors discovered that muscle stem cells extend polarized actin-based cellular protrusions named cytonemes to adhere to niche cells and receive the niche-produced Growth Factor through the cytoneme-niche contact sites. A thorough analysis of the roles and mechanisms of cytoneme-mediated signaling provided evidence that the polarized contact-dependent signal exchange via cytonemes is the cause of asymmetric signaling and niche-specific organization of stem cell fates. Although cytonemes have been described in many vertebrate and invertebrate tissues, this paper provides novel insights into how cytoneme-mediated asymmetric signaling might generate or regenerate various tissue architecture.